Card Outlet is yet another one of those excellent places where you can visit, to buy the perfect…read morecard or small gift. This store in Richmond Street offers a decent variety to choose from, whether it is a cuddly toy, a fancy name tag or a birthday balloon. The majority of items, including cards are quite affordable and not the expensive type that card shops such as Clinton offer. However, cards are still of good quality and contain a charming verse or two that never fails to cheer up someone's day. Next time you're in search of a special card or cute little gift, make sure you check out Card Outlet.

Cottage Crafts is a really cute little gift shop…read more They sell a really great variety of cute and unusual stock including greeting cards, jewellery, stationary (including a really quirky line with cartoon animals and funny quotes--I can't remember the name of the company, but they are really cute), and all manner of other gifty items. I love almost everything in this shop. It's colourful, cute, girly and all around fun. The only thing negative I have to say about this shop is that nothing for sale here is actually truly of a "craft" nature, and therefore Cottage Crafts is kind of an inappropriate name for the shop.

WHSmith is one of the most famous bookshops in the world (they're mentioned in Monty Python's 'Book…read moreShop Sketch' for crying out loud!) so it's a bit disappointing when you find out just what tat is on the shelves here. Maybe tat is the wrong word. All the books here are of a very high quality. The covers are pristine, the photography is excellent and the general feel of each book is akin to lifting the Holy Grail. It's just a shame the actual content is terrible. It's a basic fact that 904% of all books published today have their origins in television. They're all either companion guides to the latest reality cack, cookery books from smarmy TV chefs or turgid autobiographies from washed-up soapstars. The stationery is still great though. I could buy it all day before realising nothing I do in life necessitates the purchasing of stationery, sadly.

Sure Smiths is good for books, but they only have a limited selection and a lot of these are either…read moreTV, cookery or chick lit based. With the occasional crime section spliced in! But what Smith's are really good at is stocking magazines on every subject available to humanity. 'Treasures of the Earth'. 'Surf UK', 'Gun Collector', 'True Crime', 'the Beano', 'TV Weekly'. These are just some of the titles that litter the shelves in most Smith's outlets. They also sell a range of confectionary, sometimes including 'Toblerone', which one would normally associate with airports or shit holidays! I'm surpised this shop is still going after Woolworths went down the Swanny! However, fair play to them as they seemed to have affiliated with the Post Office now, meaning you can get your 'True Crime' mag, your Toblerone and your travel insurance all under one roof!

Seasons Cards is a great little card and gift shop in Huyton Shopping Centre. The gift selection is…read moresmall, but there are some plush toys (ie teddy bears and such), so if you need a quick gift for a small child or your girlfriend (let no one assume I am condoning quick gifts for girlfriends--they deserve far more than that!), you can probably find something here. I noticed they do a good selection of discount cards, around 79 pence each, which is not bad compared with what you'll pay in Hallmark stores, for instance.

This is a great litle card shop which offers a huge range of cards for every occsion you can…read moreimagine. There are always several good offers on at any one time for multibuys and they also have very inexpensive cards availble for example 7 fairly plain but just as effective birthday cards for a pound. The staff are friendly and are happy to show you where to find different types of cards and gifts. the shop is well siuated in the heart of the Old Swan shopping area and i think it's definitely a good place to go rather than the branded shops around.

Hillary's Cards inside Birkenehead Market offers a great variety of greeting cards at terrific…read morediscounted prices. You can get a lot of cards for 29 pence each, or four for £1.00. This is a great place to stock up so that you have cards on hand the next time an occasion sneaks up on you and you've forgotten to buy one. They also sell a few gift items, and a variety of gift wrap. The only down side to this shop is that they only accept cash, so you'll need to remember to cash out before heading into the market. (But I guess that's good sense anyway, if you're shopping in a market.)

Warrington Market runs Monday to Saturday in Warrington town centre, a couple of minutes away from…read moreGolden Square Shopping Centre - it has both an indoor and outdoor market, although the outdoor area does seem much more popular in terms of business but I just don't see the hype sadly - with huge crowds, queues at certain stalls and people just walking past fresh produce smoking (I hate the smell and sight of smoke especially in a market which is supposed to be quality - surely areas like this should have a smoking ban like indoor locations are smoke-free in the UK?) The indoor area isn't much better it feels a little old - the dirty floor and horrible, rancid smells inside don't help - as soon as I entered I was forced to persevere past the horrible wind as you entered which blew the horrible smells right into your face which was simply vomit-inducing. It really does seem the growth of supermarkets which has had a bad effect on markets has affected this one - reviewers state this place was even in decline around ten years ago and by the looks of things, it seems to be surviving by the skin of its' teeth and it's really far from the place it once was. 1*

There are a few very good stalls of note in the market that have stood the test of time but…read moreunfortunately there are some not so good ones. That and the fact that more than a third seem to be empty means that the market is getting worse not better. It seems to be going in the direction of the rest of Warrington town centre, Downwards. Well done to the handful of good stalls on there. Notably the Game and Fish stalls along with a good veg stall. Mr Tasty brightens the place up and now has the largest stall in there. If a fraction of people in Warrington stopped using the supermarkets all the time and paid a Weekly or even Monthly visit to the Market then it may be able halt the decline and improve. The Stall I like include the following. African/Jamaican produce Caribbean Hot food store Cheese store Sausage Store Mr Tasty Butchers and cooked/roast food Veg store Game Store Fish monger For others there is a sports/angling store A cafe' Lots of clothes, shoes and bag store. A pet shop, hairdressers lots of place open and close in a short time. Last time I visited one of the three halls was almost empty.

Love this place…read more Stephanie's is great; my family and I have been coming here for years. It is one of the few decent card and occasions shops locally and it sells so much fantastic stuff; it's high quality and quite unique so, while you can pick up the very nice, but fast becoming, generic 'Me to You' items and merchandise from the 'Forever Friends' range fr example, you can discover a really original little gift, a genuinely different card or fancy gift wrap and bags to make an occassion and your wishes really meaningful.

The lady there is a fraudster! She made me pay for a printed mug before it was done and when it was…read moreit appeared to be absolutly awful! The black colour was brown, coulors at the top were lighter than at other places, all pictures looked foggy. I said that I don`t want to pay before I see the mug and the picture on it but she insisted! I`m very upset about that! Then I did the same picture in city centre, it cost the same money and the quality was perfect!